Connecticut Injury Settlements – Lawsuit Information Center Blog

This page looks a personal injury statistics and sample settlement amounts and jury payouts in Connecticut to give you some sense of the potential range of settlement compensation for your claim in 2024.
Then, our lawyers explain the Connecticut law that matters to you if you are seeking compensation for your injuries.
Let’s start with some statistics on personal injury compensation in Connecticut. Statistics like this are extremely interesting… and extremely misleading as we explain in a moment.
The average personal injury verdict at trial in Connecticut is $2,519,637, according to Jury Verdict Research.
This is great ammo if you are a personal injury lawyer trying to trump up the value of your case or if you are a tort reform advocate trying to show that juries are going wild. But this is unbelievably misleading.
The median personal injury verdict in Connecticut is $22,499, less than 10% of the average. Only 4% of verdicts exceed $1 million and I would love to see how many of these verdicts are actually collected. My guess? Less than half. Someone got a $326 million verdict in this study. I didn’t look up the verdict, but somehow I doubt someone wrote a $326 million check.
One more stat- this is an old one but still instructive- the median compensation in personal injury trials in Connecticut is $17,391, and injury victims obtain a financial recovery in 58% of cases that go to trial. This is less than half the national average.
Average verdict statistics are often worthless, yet people are always throwing average numbers out there. I’m as guilty as anyone. I put up a lot of average verdicts statistics than anyone.  They are of great interest to me, other lawyers,  and potential plaintiffs. But these Connecticut statistics underscore that the information is for entertainment purposes only.
Do these example lawsuits tell you what the average settlement compensation for your case will be? Of course not. They are just one more tool for gaining a better understanding of what your personal injury or wrongful death claim may be worth.
Each personal injury case is unique. That sounds trite, but it is true.  So you cannot use these example Connecticut settlements and verdicts to calculate your expected payout.
The amount awarded or offered in a settlement in a personal injury case will depend on the facts and circumstances of the case, as well as the amount of damages suffered by the plaintiff. Still, seeing settlement and jury payouts gives you a better feel for the potential range of values.
Below is a summary outline of Connecticut law on torts, which includes personal injury and medical malpractice cases.
In Connecticut, you have two years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit in the state’s civil court system (Connecticut General Statutes section 52-584).
Like many states, Connecticut recently passed new laws revising the applicable statute of limitations for civil lawsuits involving child sex abuse. Under CT’s new laws, victims of child sexual abuse that occurred before October 2019 have until their 48th birthday to file a civil lawsuit. For cases where the child sexual abuse occurred after October 1, 2019, the victim has until their 51st birthday to file suit.  Connecticut law holds entities like schools, churches, and other organizations liable if they negligently hire, supervise, or retain an employee who perpetrates abuse. With the new changes to the sex abuse statute of limitations,  these institutions can face suits even if the abuse occurred a long time ago. When the victim of the sexual abuse or assault is an adult, the general 3-year statute of limitation applies.
There are exceptions to the statute of limitations.  The most common is the discovery rule.  The time frame for taking legal action due to someone’s negligence starts on the day the harm is noticed, or when someone reasonably should have noticed it. This is outlined in the Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 4-148(a) and 52-584. When they talk about “injury,” they mean a harm that allows you to take legal action, or “actionable harm.”  Actionable harm happens when the victim realizes, or should have realized, they’ve been wronged.
For something to be legally wrong, two main things have to be in place: the wrongdoer failed to act properly, and that failure directly caused harm to the victim.
Be careful assuming you have more time than the statute of limitations because of the discovery rule.  But usually when people think the discovery rule applies, it does not.  Talk to a lawyer as soon as you can.
Connecticut’s general statute of repose for product liability claims is ten years from the date the party last parted with possession or control of the product.  This rule is codified in Connecticut General Statutes § 52-577a. The statute essentially provides a time limit on bringing product liability claims, regardless of when the injury or harm is discovered.  Under Connecticut General Statute § 52-584, the statute of limitations can be extended through the legal principles of continuous behavior and fraudulent concealment.
Connecticut follows a modified comparative negligence rule. This means that if a plaintiff is found to be partly responsible for the injury, the compensation they receive will be reduced by their percentage of fault. However, if they’re 51% or more at fault, they won’t be able to recover any damages (Connecticut General Statutes section 52-572h).
In Connecticut, the collateral source rule (outlined in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-225a) mandates that the court deduct any collateral source payments from the total amount of economic damages awarded. “Collateral sources” are defined as payments made either directly to the claimant or on their behalf. These can be from health or sickness insurance, auto accident insurance offering health benefits, and other similar insurance benefits, excluding life insurance. They can also come from any agreement or contract from entities that pay for or cover the cost of healthcare services (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-225b). However, the awarded settlement itself is not considered a collateral source. There are two notable exceptions:
The award for economic damages won’t be reduced by collateral sources if there’s a subrogation right.
The award also won’t be reduced by collateral sources that correspond to a reduction in the plaintiff’s economic damages due to their own percentage of negligence (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-225a(a)).
In cases with multiple defendants, each defendant may be liable for the full amount of damages. This is known as joint and several liability, and it allows the plaintiff to recover the full amount of damages from any defendant, regardless of their individual percentage of fault.
You can sue multiple people or groups for the same injury, whether together or separately, and get judgments against each of them. This approach aims to ensure that the injured party is compensated.
However, even if there are multiple judgments, you can only be compensated once for the same loss. In simpler terms, you can’t double-dip and get paid twice for the same harm. Typically, once you’ve been fully paid for the damage, the matter is settled.
To succeed in a medical malpractice lawsuit, the plaintiff is required to demonstrate three key elements: (1) the accepted standard of care for the treatment, (2) a breach of that standard of care, and (3) a direct link between the breach and the injury alleged.
For medical malpractice claims, Connecticut also follows a two-year statute of limitations. However, this starts from the date the injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered, but no later than three years from the date of the act or omission complained of (Connecticut General Statutes section 52-584).
In Connecticut, to bring a medical malpractice claim, an expert’s opinion is typically required. The plaintiff must obtain a written, signed opinion from a qualified healthcare provider indicating that there seems to be evidence of medical negligence. This is known as a Certificate of Good Faith.
This requirement is for malpractice cases.  So the question often arises whether the negligence is medical malpractice or just negligence.  In ambiguous situations where it’s unclear if a claim falls under medical malpractice, three key questions are considered to determine its nature:  (1) are the defendants being sued in their capacities as medical professionals, (2) is the alleged negligence of a specialized medical nature that arises out of the medical professional-patient relationship, and (3) is the alleged negligence substantially related to medical diagnosis or treatment and does it involve the exercise of medical judgment?
In Connecticut, before filing a medical malpractice lawsuit, an attorney must obtain a written opinion from a “similar health care provider” indicating that there is a good faith belief that there was medical negligence on the part of the healthcare professional. This is codified in Connecticut General Statutes § 52-190a. This “Certificate of Good Faith” is an important initial hurdle to ensure that only meritorious claims proceed.
Connecticut does not have a cap or limit on the damages that can be awarded in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Connecticut law requires healthcare providers to obtain informed consent from patients before performing any procedure or treatment. If a healthcare provider fails to obtain this consent and the patient suffers an injury, the provider may be liable for medical malpractice.
There are a number of national mass torts or “class actions” that involve hundreds of Connecticut plaintiffs, including claims our law firm is handling across the country:
The average payout for a successful malpractice lawsuit in Connecticut is $782,993.
MCIC, VT, ProSelect Insurance Company, and Connecticut Medical Insurance Company (CMIC), have two-thirds of Connecticut’s medical malpractice insurance market.
Our firm is dedicated to handling serious injury and wrongful death victims in Michigan. How does our service work when you hire us? We collaborate with and compensate Michigan medical malpractice lawyers from the fees we collect as attorneys. So you are getting two lawyers for the price of one, and we are picking the best Michigan lawyer we can to help us.  This ensures you have great lawyers.
This next part is important – you do not incur any extra fees or costs to engage two law firms rather than just one. Moreover, you only pay a fee if you are awarded settlement compensation or a jury verdict in your favor.
You can get a free no-obligation consultation online or call us today at 800-553-8082.

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